So I had this idea about a week ago, just before the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. It wasn't originally going to be a World War I piece, but The Great Hippo made a few good arguments about why it should be WWI and not WWII, among which was the fact that Finland was an allied country, and I think that any Finnish SCP Foundation readers would have their eyebrows raised if Väinämöinen was allied with the Nazis. Same with Frederick I— he was really progressive for his day, and would probably have hated Hitler.
This is also based, in part, on Overly Sarcastic Productions's video on Fionn Mac Cumhaill, specifically the segment where Red discusses how the apocalypse is going to be a lot more interesting depending on how many King in the Mountain/Sleeping Hero myths are true.
Thanks to all of the beta readers for this, including:
Meserach
DrChandra
Weryllium
Researcher Blasko
RailroadRider
Kakroom
And special thanks to The Great Hippo for advice on Frederick's characterization.
Image Attribution:
First image is from here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_cavalry_resting_1917.jpg
Second image is from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Inha_runonlaulajat.jpg
Both images are in the public domain.
Hope you enjoy!